Most reservations throughout the country will experience increased drug
availability and abuse in the near term, largely because of poor socioeconomic
conditions within Native American communities and a lack of resources available
for law enforcement, drug treatment programs, and drug education campaigns. Additionally, gang proliferation
on reservations throughout the country will most likely continue as Native
American youth become more exposed to gang culture through the media and
personal contact with gang members. Consequently, gang-related criminal activity
will quite likely increase on reservations as it has in many other areas of the
nation. Native American communities are committed to changing this outlook; they
are promoting drug awareness and educational programs, instituting
community-oriented public safety programs, and partnering with federal, state,
and tribal law enforcement officials. However, without a comprehensive
national-level strategy aimed at dedicating greatly needed resources to
combating drug trafficking and abuse in Indian Country, including improved data
collection methods regarding Indian Country, the overall illicit drug situation
on most reservations will deteriorate.

Analytic efforts for this strategic assessment have identified several
intelligence gaps. When possible, information regarding these gaps is being
collected for further analysis. Intelligence gaps include the following:

Drug overdose and mortality statistics for Indian Country.

The extent of the drug trafficking and abuse problem on reservations
outside the contiguous 48 states.

The drug
trafficking and abuse problem in off-reservation trust lands and in
state-designated American Indian statistical areas and reservations.